Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now (1979)

a film by Francis Ford Coppola

What is it?
When asked in the Cannes Film Festival about this movie Coppola said: "this is not a movie about Vietnam. This was Vietnam". Apocalypse Now is the haunting story of Captain Willard,

an officer appointed to find and "terminate the command" of a missing special forces officer lost in the jungle during the Vietnam war. Willard will travel up the river and down to the darkest corners of the human soul. This movie is a free adaptation of Joseph Conrad's the heart of darkness in which the Vietnam jungle is the setting for a hallucinatory trip through the war.

Memorable scene

A napalm bombed forest and The Door's The End, provide one of the best first sequences I have ever seen. This scene summarizes what is about to come, it is clear you are descending into the heart of darkness, the helicopter propellers like the echoes of ghosts while you see the tree line engulfed in flames and the words of Jim Morrison saying "Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end".

Favourite quote

"Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over, I never wanted another." - Captain Willard
Why is it worth watching this movie?

There are many reasons for watching Apocalypse Now. It is worth watching Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando and seeing the dementia of war incarnated in their faces. It is worth seeing the product of a the titanic effort to finish this production. But for me the most important one is because they don't make movies like this anymore. This is an ambitious and daring reflection on war, excessive but remarkable this film shows the main aspects of the war and the decay and contradictions of the human nature. From a the ritual sacrifice of a cow to a squad of helicopters ready to attack a village with the notes of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, this movie is full of original and daring images. This added to a suspenseful narrative and brilliant characters creates a brilliant and haunting film.

How To Marry a Millionaire

How To Marry a Millionaire (1953)

a film by Jean Negulesco

What is it?

A likable romantic comedy featuring three great actresses Betty Grable, Mariliyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall as charming gold-diggers in New York. This is a light hearted story in the spirit of Bus Stop and Pillow Talk where real love is the champion over ambition and social condition.

Memorable scene

Lauren Bacall's character, Schatze Page is trying to convince William Powell that their age difference doesn't matter to her and says: "Loot at Roosvelt, look at Churchill, look at old fella what's his name in The African Queen". The old fella is Humphrey Bogart, Bacall's husband at the time.

Favourite quote

"Most women use more brains picking a horse in the third at Belmont than they do picking a husband" - Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall).

Why is it worth watching this movie?

How To Marry a Millionaire is the kind of Hollywood production that will never age. It features a combination of smart script and charming actresses to bring to life the rose-colored and optimistic vision of what has become the romantic comedy genre. This movie is as a valid and entertaining after almost 60 years from its release and its story of independent women in New York is surely the cast from which stories like Sex and the City came from. I can see a remake of this movie coming into theaters really soon.

Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

a film by Ingmar Bergman

What is it?

This is the story of the Ekdahl family and two of their youngest member. Circumstances take Fanny and Alexander from the little world that the family has created, and as they have to face darkness and meanness. This is a movie about love and friendship. The plot points in one direction but the story is told through the characters and their personal littles stories come together to create this portrait of family. At the same time sweet and sad, magical and wise, this movie is a superb film, a great work by Ingmar Bergman full of love and his cinema mastership.

Memorable scene

There is many scenes in this movie in which one of the characters tells a story. Then the light is dim, and the room feels warm and all you want to do it listen to their words as if your grandpa was telling you the story and all you want to be is a 5-year-old to listen to them. That is what Bergman manages to create with his cinema.
Favourite quote

"Aren't you afraid god will punish you for saying that?" - Fanny

"If a big know-it-all like him punishes a runt like me for so little then he is just the dirty bastard I suspect he is." - Alexander

Why is it worth watching this movie?

This movie doesn't feel like a play or a film, it feels more like looking through the window of your neighbors and seeing their life through it. This movie looks like a painting, carefully composed and with great care for the colors and the light, it is not only narratively powerful but also visually outstanding. This movie provides deep emotions and with great skill Bergman manages not only to move but to touch your soul. This movie has really sad scenes, some other are really scary, some others produce anger, but doesn't matter what is happening it feels sweet and magical, but also very human.

Tampopo

Tampopo (1986)

a film by Juzo Itami

What is it?
The entertaining and original story of a widow and a group of gastronomical samurai in the quest for the perfect noodles. A tribute to gastronomy and Japanese culture in the style of modern Western.
Memorable scene
In a class of Western table manners and etiquette, the teacher emphasizes in front of her audience of young Japanese women that when eating spaghetti they should try to avoid making any sounds. But, how to explain it to the class when in the next table a Western costumer sucks loudly on his spaghetti?
Favourite quote
"They say when you die you see something like a movie, a life kaleidoscoped into a few seconds. I look forward to that movie. A man's last movie." - The man in the white suit.
Why is it worth watching this movie?

This movie is a celebration of food. It re-edits the samurai/western story in which the quest for justice is transformed into a quest for gastronomical perfection. All the characters in this movie are rich and interesting, each one has its own story that crosses and enriches the main plot. This is an entertaining film that will make you crave for noodle soup.

Breaking the Waves

Breaking the Waves (1996)
a film by Lars Von Trier

What is it?
A bold, defiant and devastating story of love and sacrifice. Lars Von Trier, one of the creators of the realist Dogma 95 movement composes a story where he dares to go to the limits of sacrifice for love in a castrating society that smashes sensitivity. This is the story of Bess, who finds Jan, the love she has longed for so long, a boundless and unlimited love beyond the tragedy and the isolation.

Memorable scene
The expression of Emily Watson makes this movie transcend and linger in memory. Her face and her eyes are memorable, beautiful and bright in such a gray world.

Gossip
Helena Bonham Carter refused to play the role of Bess due to the amount of nudity and sexuality that it involved.
Why is it worth watching this movie?
There is nothing like a Lars Von Trier movie to feel angry and devastated at the same time. In this movie the camera dives into the depths of the human soul, and everything from the impressive and gray Scotish landscape to Dodo's wedding speech show love and isolation in such a crude way that is difficult to scape untouched.

The Leopard

Il Gattopardo (1963)
a film by Luchino Visconti

What is it?
The chronicles of a Sicilian noble man in the time of the Italian Unification (Risorgimento). A greatly casted portrait of an epoch that is coming to an end. A film about the individual in the change of the times.
Memorable scene
The 45 minutes ballroom is a great piece of cinema. Everything happens, the camera goes everywhere: dance scenes, close-ups, hovering over the crowd. In this scene, history comes to life in the costumes and the settings but also in the faces and the souls of the characters.
Favourite quote
"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change" - Tancredi
Why is it worth watching this movie?
If you like history and you want to see a portrait of a time already gone, this is movie offers a thoughtful and melancholic fresco, full of visually moving scenes, talented and beautiful actors and memorable characters.

The Godfather Part II

The Godfather Part II (1974)
a film by Francis Ford Coppola

What is it?
The movie where everything comes together. You walk the streets of the old New York, see the mafia slicing Cuba on the verge of the Revolucion, watch Vito and Michael becoming the Godfather
Memorable scene
A young Vito Corleone walks over the roofs of the buildings while on the street a religious parade is taking place. Many characters all of them doing their things, while on a technically amazing traveling take the camera follows Vito to his appointment with destiny.
Favourite quote
"I don't feel I have to wipe everybody out, Tom. Just my enemies." - Michael Corleone
Why is it worth watching this movie?
Because it is great film. It has all the elements that make movies memorable and rich, it is emotional, historical, lyric and cruel at the same time. It is a movie to enjoy and feel. So many great things have been told about this movie but they are all mere shadows of the great experience that is enjoying this film.

The Godfather

The Godfather (1972)

a film by Francis Ford Coppola

What is it?
The first episode of the Godfather saga, one of the most highly regarded films in history of cinema. A powerful history of family, of traditions and honor in crime.
Memorable scene
A couple of fishes arrive wrapped in newspaper and nobody knows what it means. Somebody sleeps with the fishes.
Favourite quote
"In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns"
Why is it worth watching this movie?
There is not need to mention why. This movie is up to its legend, it is a rich and vibrant film, where the action doesn't come from the shooting of the guns but from the faces of the characters.

Army Of Shadows (Bonus Track)

Army Of Shadows (1969)

a film by Jean-Pierre

What is it?
The dark story of a group of members of the French resistance during World War II. Visually impressive and moving film about the meaning of life in clandestinity.
Memorable scene
The first minutes of the film summarize in sound and images the fear and despair that came with the advent of the World War II. The sight of German soldiers goose-stepping past the Arc de Triomphe is more powerful than any explanation.
Favourite quote
"She said five minutes, but she'll wait a lifetime" - Jean-Francoise Jardie
Gossip
This film was attacked by the critics of Cahier du Cinema for seeming pro-de Gaulle just in the middle of the spirit brought by May of 68. The film was later restored and released in North America in 1996 and became a popular as a classic misunderstood on its time.
Why is it worth watching this movie?
Because this is a blunt and dark historical portrait, it is greatly casted and tells with great care of aesthetics the story of this shadows that live anonymously in history.

Gone With The Wind

Gone With The Wind (1939)

a film by Victor Fleming

What is it?
The chronicles of a family in the South of the United States before, during and after the Civil War embodied in the strong character of a woman decided to do anything to scape from the misery that came with the change of times. A masterpiece of the Hollywood studio system.
Memorable scene
Right at the end of the first part, in a beautiful scene with natural light in the shadow of twilight Scarlett swears that he family won't ever be hungry again.
Favourite quote
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" - Rhett Butler
Interesting
The wood structures burned to recreate the fire of Atlanta were the walls of Babylon in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916) and the ruins in King Kong (1933).
Why is it worth watching this movie?
To watch the film that has produced so many scenes embedded in popular culture and understand what is it all about. See a portrait of the American history in the tormented and passionate life of Scarlett O'Hara and her family. Because is great to hear Rhett Butler.